


Wrong Way

by nicockla



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Coincidence, Falling In Love, First Kiss, First Time, Fluff, Getting Together, Hockey, Jock Calum Hood, Jock Luke Hemmings, M/M, Nerd Ashton Irwin, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:48:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 9,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27378967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nicockla/pseuds/nicockla
Summary: ❝The one where Calum plays field hockey at lunch and Ashton reads about art history in the library, Calum heads to the library looking for Ashton and Ashton goes to the hockey field looking for Calum❞
Relationships: Calum Hood/Ashton Irwin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	1. Chapter 1

**[Wednesday, March 9th]**

**-Ashton's Irwin-**

"Why don't you just go down there?" Luke asked impatiently.

Ashton rolled his eyes and huffed, "I don't know what I'd say, I can't just sit there and watch you guys practice,"

"Yes, you literally can, all the girls just go down and sit in the stands the whole time and don't say anything, even to their boyfriends," Luke told him as he grabbed his hockey stick from his locker.

Ashton rolled his eyes in response, his latest library borrow and the sandwich his mum had made for him pressed against his chest. Luke continued pulling his kit out of the bottom of his locker, both unaware and unbothered by Ashton's clear embarrassment about watching hockey practice. It was easy enough for Luke to brush it off as a normal thing to do because he'd never had to do it. Everyone on the team knew Ashton was gay; he felt like a perv. Even if the girls were doing it too, he imagined the boys on the team welcomed their gazes a little more willingly. It seemed Luke often forgot that just because he knew that Ashton was interested in every guy he laid his eyes on, especially the empty-headed hockey players – well except one of them but he was the exception, not that rule- anyway the point was the rest of the team would think he was a perv.

When he turned his attention back to focus on the taller boy, he saw he must have found a cookie somewhere in the garbage heap he called a locker because he was holding it between his teeth while juggling the quickly growing pile of equipment in his hands.

"Can you carry this?" he mumbled around the cookie, holding out the hand that had his hockey stick in it, "I'm going to be late,"

Ashton rolled his eyes but took it anyway, and Luke started down the hall and Ashton couldn't help but sigh as he turned to follow him. He had been tempted to tell the lanky pest that he could carry his own shit, but the little niggling thought that maybe Calum might walk back to class with Luke told him maybe it would be worth it. So he awkwardly trundled along behind Luke, holding the stick in his hand as though it might bite him.

Once they made it to the field, he shoved the stick into Luke's arms outside the locker room and walked off into the stands in what he hoped looked like a huff, but the laugh from Luke told him he wasn't pulling of disgruntled as well as he might like.

From a seat toward the back of the stands he watched as the boys tied up their cleats and set about the field warming up, but he couldn't find the head of dark hair he'd become accustomed to searching for subconscious or otherwise. The team started their training and Ashton worked to tune out the coach's shouts and sat thoroughly engrossed in his book rather than watching, the best way to stay out of trouble he reasoned. He pulled at the sandwich it brought with his fingers, taking small bits and popping them in his mouth to try and avoid letting tomato or mayo drip onto the pages.

He was about halfway through his sandwich and a fair chunk of the way into his book - following the timeline of varnishes - when he surfaced from his book hearing the girls behind him giggling.

"You know he's gay right?" that question was met with indistinguishable whispers before the same voice spoke again, "Well I wonder who he's here for because he's obviously only here to perv,"

Another voice spoke, "Are you sure? He's had his head buried in that book the whole time,"

"That makes a good cover if anyone were to say anything, doesn't it?" the first voice spoke again. Ashton reflexively adjusted himself in his embarrassment, and the girls lowered their voices and started talking again. He had no hope of hearing them now, and while one part of him was satisfied knowing he could go back to his book, the other part of him wanted to know where that conversation had been heading.

He went back to his book. However, his mind wasn't as focused on the purposes of different kinds of varnish as it had been before, he found himself imagining how in god's name the first person to use varnish had decided that it was worth a shot. Much like the procurement of milk and eggs, the concept perplexed him; he was sitting looking out across the field with his brow furrowed. He wasn't really looking out though, no he was somewhere in his head when Luke put his foot upon the bench Ashton was sitting on.

"Hey," Luke spoke shortly as he leaned to the side a little as if to move into Ashton's line of sight, but the other boy snapped his head around to look at the sweaty mess beside him. "You coming back in? I got to shower, but I can meet you by the lockers. We have English right?"

"Yeah, English I'll meet you by the lockers," Ashton hummed finally letting his eyes focus in on Luke's dishevelled appearance, his eyes skating down to see Luke's legs were splattered with mud and a few pieces of grass stuck in the mud. He reflexively scrunched his nose before standing.

"It's not my fault they grass is still covered in dew,"

"Didn't say anything,"

"Yeah but I could see you thinking it."

Ashton just shrugged his shoulders and started leading the way down the grandstand; he could hear the girls speaking again, obviously thinking the pair was out of earshot they spoke freely.

"That must be who he's trying to get with,"

"They might be actually together,"

"They're probably just friends,"

"Ugh, Jenny you're so boring, Luke's so straight, and Ashton's so desperate,"

Ashton felt a big arm wrap around his shoulder, and he held back an eye roll as the girls gasped, Luke led him toward the locker room door, and the girls continued back toward the main school buildings.

"Sorry he wasn't here, and you know that their cunts," Luke said, letting his arm drop from Ashton's shoulder moving it to the door handle.

"I don't care; it was nice watching you practice for a change,"

"Oh yeah and I bet those girls were just the icing on the cake," Luke rolled his eyes and Ashton fought the urge to copy him.

"It doesn't matter, it was good to get fresh air, and I mean I wasn't really there to see him, it just might have been a happy coincidence if he had been."

"Whatever you have to tell yourself,"

Ashton went to rebuttal, but Luke had already disappeared behind the locker room door, a place he did not fancy his queer self-welcome, so he turned tail and headed back toward the lockers. He really had been there for fresh air and Luke, nothing else. 


	2. Chapter 2

**[Wednesday, March 9th]**

**-Calum's POV-**

"He's always in the library, he sits you know- down the back where all the group booths are," Michael made a back and forward gesture trying to orientate his story, "he normally gets a whole booth to himself," Michael told him excitedly as they walked toward their lockers.

"I don't know why you'd think I want to know that, I have hockey practice," Calum said rolling his eyes, he ducked around Michael and made contact with his locker, pulling the door open to hide the soft heat on his cheeks.

"Only four practices a week are mandatory," Michael trailed off.

"So?"

"So," he said extending the 'o' sound, "you could come to the library with me, you know just to hang out," Michael moved himself to the other side of Calum's locker door so that he'd have no choice but to look at him.

"I guess studying couldn't hurt," the tan boy muttered with an eye roll, this seemed to content the pale boy as he moved back to his locker and started rummaging for books. Calum followed suit taking his Math A textbook and woodshop plan sheet from his locker; surely this should be enough to keep him busy. He wasn't sure if he was allowed to eat in the library, but he brought an apple and bag of Cheetos from his locker anyway.

As they made their way from their lockers to the library, Calum had to restrain himself from craning his neck around corners and over his shoulders looking for, for well no one in particular. When they got to the library, Calum felt a non-specific sense of impending doom wash over him. It took a few moments for him to realise the tightening of his chest and the feeling he was surely forgetting s _omething_ was coming from the students. Zigzagging from printer back to the computer, to librarian, to stapler to _'who the fuck took my USB?_ ' they busied themselves. No, it wasn't Calum who'd forgotten something it was just the general tension that rose from being surrounded by people who were supposed to be handing in something that didn't exist.

Michael led him to a table and chairs around the corner (well away from the chaos of the computers), and they sat. The blonde-haired boy didn't speak; he just opened his Math textbook and began working on problems. Calum tried to follow suit, but his neck found itself twisting (entirely without his authority) to search the room. He had the urge even to stand up to get a better look but decided looking like a twat wasn't on the agenda today.

"He's not here anywhere," Michael finally said.

Calum looked over at him to see him eating from a small bag of MnM's stowed in his pencil case, "Who?"

Michael turned mid dropping another MnM into his mouth and raised an eyebrow before rolling his eyes and eating it, "So you gotten very far into those compound interest questions?"

Calum was tempted to cover his book childishly and tell Michael it was none of his business, but it was too late, "No, not really,"

"And that's totally not because you were looking for someone, just cause they're super hard right?" He had Calum cornered; he didn't want to admit that he was struggling with probably the easiest thing they'd done all term, _but_ he also didn't need to give Michael any more ammunition to tease him with. "So, you're just not going to say anything? Just going to assume you're a lovesick fool _and_ bad at math,"

"Hey! Love sick's a pretty strong phrase; I'm interested!" Calum said a little too loudly, "I'm not lovesick," he muttered.

Michael hummed a smirk on his face as he flipped the page of his textbook. That seemed to be the other boy's way of telling Calum that, that was enough chatting and so for the next 15 minutes or so they sat in silence working on their homework. He still couldn't stop feeling the urge to turn his head and search for- well it didn't matter. He was just far too tempted by distraction to focus, that was until he was on his third question and they were starting to get easier the more he practised them, finally, he was getting a hang of this doing homework nonsense and then the bell rang.

"We should do this more often, now I've got no homework, this is great," Michael declared rather chirpily as he stood packing his things up. Calum couldn't agree he didn't feel very relaxed; he felt as though he'd just spent his break from class in class, maybe that had something to do with his lack of attention on the problems. His mind couldn't be blamed for wondering though he supposed.

He followed Michael back to their lockers, and his brain was that drained (and his heart a little defeated) that he didn't even find himself searching the corridors, he just autopiloted back to his locker, exchanged his books and returned his uneaten lunch.

"I am sorry he wasn't there; I didn't mean to get you excited. We can go again next week?"

"It's okay; I'm not worried," Calum told him and trudged off to class, surely, he wasn't upset, was he? 


	3. Chapter 3

**[Thursday, March 17th]**

**-Ashton's POV-**

"Well, I thought maybe he'd decided not to go to Wednesday practices anymore," Ashton said defensively, his eyes were fixed ahead as he spoke, not wanting to draw the attention of their teacher.

Luke's eyes were watching their teacher too, but flicked to Ashton as he responded, "Well he was there yesterday, been there all week, you should come again today,"

"I just think it's not meant to be," he let his eyes drift from the whiteboard to give Luke a knowing look.

"Not meant to be?" Luke scoffed, "you don't believe in that shit,"

His tone too sharp and too loud caught the teacher's attention, "Luke, Ashton, talk again and you'll be with me all lunchtime," she said sternly.

They shared a look between them before turning back to their laptops and starting back on their work again. They slogged through questions on their research topics, neither daring to start their conversation back up again. The last half hour of the class dragged on with the feeling of eyes on them, and as soon as the bell rang, they packed up their things and dashed out into the hall. They walked a few feet from the door before Luke turned, seemingly deciding it was safe to speak again.

"She was super intense today, like why is she so fixated on these reports, they don't even have anything to do with the assessment piece," he grumbled, leading Ashton back to their lockers.

Ashton scoffed, "Like you can talk since last week you've been so fixated with me coming to hockey practice, you should start a club called "Anal to a fault',"

"That's because I've just decided to care about your love life, as a friend I think that's a fair thing to do," Ashton just scoffed in response, so Luke continued, "So, what was the excuse you were going to throw at me for not coming today?" he asked not looking back at Ashton as they weaved through the bodies moving against them like the stream against two Salmon.

"It just seems kind of pathetic to keep going over there hoping that I _might_ see him," Luke sighed, Ashton could tell he was starting to lose hope of convincing him. Which may or may not have disappointed him; he liked the push, it made it easier for him to act without seeming more than indifferent. "Okay, I'll come today, just one last time,"

That's how Ashton ended up back in his spot in the stands, this time though he'd only brought a wrap and no book. He found his entertainment in the practice game the team was having. One team wore loose-fitting, elastic pullovers in a bright red colour while the rest wore matching white ones.

You didn't have to be a genius or a sportsperson to figure out the general goal of the teams in field hockey. As Ashton saw it, they were, score in the other team's goal, don't get scored on and don't be _too_ rough. From what he could tell, it seemed like Luke played an offensive position, and if he didn't, he was awful at defending. Ashton cheered when Luke came close to scoring and whooped and yelled when he did finally score, the shorter boy wasn't sure where the confidence came from, but he was just so proud. Luke was actually really good, and whenever Ashton yelled as soon as he got a chance, Luke would throw him a wide grin and a wave or thumbs up. As much fun as he was having, it came at the cost of more whispering from the girls behind him, but he paid it no mind.

Just before the practice game concluded a tall, sweaty blonde boy appeared beside him. But not the tall, sweaty blonde boy he was used to this one was cute too but with striking green eyes and a decent amount of stubble for a seventeen-year-old. It was Reece Edson; Ashton knew him from around school and because he was kind of a friend of Luke's. What he was doing walking up to Ashton with a big grin, scratching the back of his head was anyone's guess.

"Hey, Ashton, isn't it?" He asked, moving to join him on the bench.

He guessed if Reece didn't know who he was maybe Luke had sent him up to ask for something, "Uh yeah, that's me what's up?"

"Was just coming up to see what it would take to get you to cheer for me like that?"

Was this flirting? Was he flirting with Ashton? Surely not. "Be the best on the team," He replied with a shrug of his shoulders, but he couldn't help the smirk that found its way onto his face.

"Oh wow, that's a low blow," the other boy chuckled letting his head loll. As he straightened back up, he seemed as though he was going to continue, but his eyes caught on something behind Ashton's shoulder. He looked over his shoulder, attempting to follow the gaze and his eyes landed on Luke who was making his way up the stairs.

"Ashy, what are two chatting about?" he said, stopping close behind Ashton and placing a large hand on his shoulder.

He turned back to Reece, "was just asking what it'd take for Ashton to cheer like that for me," Reece said offering Luke a smile, Ashton couldn't see Luke's response from where he sat, but his hand was still firmly planted on his shoulder.

"Being the best boyfriend ever tends to help," Luke said, leaning down and kissing Ashton on the cheek. He heard the whispers of the girls behind them increase, and he rolled his eyes how could no one else hear the falseness in Luke's voice.

Reece seemed to take the eye roll as an endearment rather than an exasperation because he chuckled awkwardly, "Well I guess I'll have a hard time doing that, anyway I'm going to hit the showers," he stood quickly which made everything even more awkward than it already was before leaving down the grandstand steps.

The girls moved past straight after giggling and whispering, and Luke finally lifted his hand and sat down beside Ashton, "do I get an explanation for that, or?"

"You can't date that idiot, you're saving yourself for Calum," Luke stated matter-of-factly. Ashton groaned loudly tilting his head back and looking to the sky if God could see him please, please could he do something about this idiot? He got no immediate response, typical. "Oh, come on, like you like guys like that."

"What hot guys? No, never, strictly against hot guys," He said sarcastically.

"Good, 'cause you're promised to cute boy Calum,"

He was having a tough time believing Luke had his best intentions at heart; it was starting to feel like he might have ulterior motives. 


	4. Chapter 4

**[Thursday, March 17th]**

**-Calum's POV-**

"Yeah, I figured I'd go for another study session, it was good getting everything done early you know?" Calum said, pulling his textbooks from his locker.

"Oh, just to study, hey? Nothing else?" Michael asked from beside him.

He contemplated ignoring the others comment, and turned to walk toward the library before he sighed and called over his shoulder, " just shut up, let's go,"

He heard the snigger behind him and decided to ignore him as he should have in the first place. They made their way to the library without speaking and sat down a few tables over from where they'd sat the week before. Calum was trying his hardest to not search over his shoulder; this wasn't just for his own self-satisfaction today; he could feel Michael watching him. He still hadn't spoken to him, and he was taking a minimal amount of pride in his own pettiness, it would have been greater, but he was admittedly distracted. Hoping that he might see Ashton appear through the bathroom door opposite him. Every time the door opened, his stomach lurched.

He wasn't paying much attention to anything else in the library as he doodled all through his workbook, hearts and arrows, a few stick figures giving anyone who looked their way the finger. So, when someone spoke from right behind Calum, he nearly jumped a foot in the air.

"Oh sorry, I didn't mean to sneak up on you," the girl spoke quietly, followed by a much louder giggle.

Calum turned quickly, "No, sorry it's my fault I was distracted," he scratched the back of his head awkwardly, more for lack of anything to do with the hand than anything else.

It was while he was midway through this awkward stretch when he realised who was standing in front of him. Lisa Edson, she was a bloke in their grade's younger sister, and it wasn't the first time she'd approached Calum. The last time Calum had been given a talking to by her older brother, Ryan? Reece? Calum wasn't sure, but the whole thing had been so weird. Calum wasn't interested in his sister, or anyone's sister.

The confrontation had been the only reason he'd realised the girl's intentions if he were honest, he had a knack for missing things Michael often told him were ' _very obvious Calum, Jesus Christ'_. He did feel a touch bad because Michael or one of his teammates usually had to spell it out very clearly for him.

So when he'd said 'Michael I think this girl's got a thing for me, her brother came over here talking about staying away from his baby sister, maybe his baby sister should stay away from me,' Michael had nodded sarcastically until the end when he couldn't contain his laughter anymore. She was someone Calum avoided when possible, to say the least.

"Oh well," she laughed shyly again, he was sure she was trying to be sweet, and maybe if Calum were interested, it would have worked. However, when you weren't interested and distracted to boot, it came across irritating. She continued talking, "I was wondering if you could give me some tips, I'm a forward too, and I just don't think I'm playing as strong as I could be,"

He had to hold back an eye-roll; surely, she hadn't been this obvious all this time? He'd have to had noticed earlier if she was. He was thoughtful for a moment, before deciding what exactly it was, he wanted to say.

"Well-"he began, trying to articulate what it was he wanted to say in the least dickish way possible, that meant trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice as well, which he thought would be nearly impossible. "I was actually watching the girl's team a few weeks ago, and all the forwards that were playing were a lot better than any of the guys on my team," he laughed good-naturedly before continuing, "I mean you all went to state last year, and we didn't even make it to the trials. I bet the girls on your team could give you _way_ better tips than I could," he gave her his most winning smile. "Actually," he continued yet again, "You know who you should ask? Maggie, phenomenal, wish she could train our team," he joked happily.

She faltered for a moment, "Uh, oh yeah wow really. That's really flattering; I'll have to let the rest of the team know what you said. Thanks, uh Calum," she smiled and awkwardly scampered off behind a row of books where Calum imagined her friends were waiting to deconstruct the conversation.

"Are they really that good?" Michael asked, Calum had to hold back a chuckle, she hadn't even acknowledged him sitting quietly sitting beside Calum, which was pretty rude.

"Yeah they are amazing, they make us look like a shit show, and we train four to five days a week," Calum said honestly with a shrug.

"You know she's just going to go back and convince herself that that was some convoluted way of you saying she's perfect or something,"

He sighed, "Yeah but she's gone for now, and I'm a terrible liar," Calum let his face slide into his hands before he snapped it back up again, "wait, how did they know to look for me here?"

Michael shrugged pushing his books toward the centre of the table, "Doesn't seem to matter where you go mate, the girls shall follow,"

"Wish it worked on certain boys," another sigh left his lips.

A smirk found its way onto Michael's face almost straight away, "Oh yeah it does, I heard Jeremy telling Oliver that Marquis had his gay awakening after grade ten gym with you,"

"Why are you such a gossip?" Calum said exasperatedly, "wait are you serious? If you are, I'm so flattered," 


	5. Chapter 5

**[Monday, March 21st]**

**-Ashton's POV-**

This was it he decided; this was the last time he was going looking for Calum, he felt like an absolute chump, surely the other boy was avoiding him? Chance could not be this cruel.

The paranoid part of his brain took him on a journey down memory lane. It was about 4 years earlier; he was 14 and just realising he was gay. Cute right? Totally. However, it also came with an enormous amount of excitement and pride, which led to telling anyone and everyone who would listen.

Which was fine, except it meant that he had lost a layer of anonymity, so if Calum found out he was 'looking' for him at lunch, well maybe he'd guessed exactly why and was actively hiding from him. He didn't know for sure Calum was even interested in guys, he just... had a feeling he supposed.

So naturally, his heart was kind of heavy. But he pushed the nagging thought to the back of his mind and sat in _his_ (it was his now) spot on the bleachers. They were playing a practice game against the girl's team this time and honestly the girls were _destroying_ them. Ashton was cheering and whooping whenever Luke came close to scoring or made a solid offensive move. The girls behind him were expressing their embarrassment for the team, and Ashton couldn't help but think that they should be proud of the girls' team and leave it at that.

He could see that the difficulty of the game was affecting Luke's ability; he was becoming discouraged rather than inspired by the competition. Ashton silently thought that that summed Luke up well, he was here playing a competitive sport and was put off by the competitive nature of it. Ashton still cheered for him and even for some of the other guys he was less intimidated by. 

He didn't even manage a stray glance toward the direction he expected Calum to come from. He was having a pretty good time watching them get their arses handed to them. Eventually, though the lunch break was coming to an end and so the game followed suit. There wasn't much point in checking the score it was clear who'd won. So, Ashton waited as both the teams worked quickly putting away the balls as they were debriefed by their coaches.

He thought about getting up and heading down to Luke but the idea of standing among the players- okay so not the girls but the boys- didn't sit right with him, so instead he waited for his sweaty friend to come to him. It didn't take much longer, and he was bounding up the stairs with his fringe flopping in his face.

He stopped a few steps down, "I'm," he panted, letting himself catch his breath a moment "I'm sorry he wasn't here again, this is just statistically improbable," he struggled out, his heavy breathing letting the word catch in his throat.

"I'm not that worried," Ashton conceded with a shake of his head, and he wasn't even lying. He'd started having a good time coming to watch the games out in the fresh air. Don't get him wrong he still _loved_ his haven in the library, but it was nice to do something different. "You played really well today,"

"We lost Ashton," Luke said matter-of-factly hands on his hips.

"Yes, but despite that, you still played well. I actually really like coming to watch you play, I'm kind of starting to get it,"

"Field hockey is not that hard,"

"It is to me, okay?"

"C'mon let's go, I need to shower,"

"I need to get back to my locker before the bell rings, that obnoxious girl and her boyfriend will be making out on it if I wait any longer," Ashton said with an eye-roll.

Luke feigned a sad look, "but I need my boyfriend to loofa my back,"

Ashton gagged in response and moved past him heading down the stairs. He could hear the other chuckling to himself before the familiar sound of shoes hitting concrete followed him. He let himself forget the other was following him as he started to think about a book, he was excited to finish rather than concerning himself with the possibility someone had overheard them.

The effort to keep the thoughts from his mind seemed to be enough to distract him, not veen noticing as he passed by the locker room, until Luke shouted after him, 'I guess I'll see you in sixth period then'.

By the time he turned around to respond, he'd only seen the back of Luke through the door. Ashton didn't bother saying anything and kept on his way off the fields and back into the school halls. And he'd thought to himself it'd probably the last time he'd walk this way for a while now that he'd sworn off traipsing around after Calum.


	6. Chapter 6

**[Monday, March 21st]**

**-Calum's POV-**

They were back in the library. Michael was nattering away, and Calum was sure he didn't much care if he was listening or not. Which was generally how they operated, Michael usually told him about the politics behind certain video games or, anime or marvel and Calum half listened, and half wandered off into his own head.

Today he was caught up with the idea of Ashton wandering into the library, seeing Calum and Michael and coming over to say hi. They'd chat and Michael would remain silent and not embarrass him (that's how Calum could distinguish it as fantasy and not real life). They'd talk about whatever it was that Ashton was always reading in here, and he'd be able to give witty and informed opinions because this was his fantasy and in that fantasy, he was a _great_ conversationalist who would know all about whatever it was. Then Ashton would complement him on his hockey skills and Calum would take the compliment well but admit the girl's team was better and Ashton would say something about his natural potential. Calum would ask him if he wanted to catch the train into the city and get smoothies and of course, he'd say yes, and Calum would take him to the best smoothie place, and he'd love it.

In the real world though he'd unknowingly let out a loud contented sigh and Michael's head had risen from his work, "Please tell me you're not daydreaming about doing cutesy stuff with him,"

He ignored the comment and instead asked, "do you know what he reads when he's in here?"

"I don't know exactly what books but he always picks something from over there, the art history section," Michael subtly pointed to an aisle across the library before sighing, "you're going to go over there and read it aren't you?"

"Yes," he simply replied getting up and moving across the room to the aisle before Michael could make another comment.

He started searching the shelf for the most basic book he could find. Marble through the Ages, no. Depictions of Lucifer: Catholic Church Opinion, no. Artist to Inventor: Why they did it, no. Religious artworks and how they shaped history, also a big no. Finally, he came across a title that seemed to be the easiest way to get the basics down, A Brief History of Art.

He contemplated finding somewhere away from Michael to sit to hopefully avoid comments that were far too accurate but looking around the crowded library he decided it was best to park himself next to Michael rather than someone else. And to his credit all Michael did was give him an eye-roll.

He also remained silent as Calum quickly devoured two and a half chapters of the thick textbook. He'd barely broken his line of sight with the book since starting, desperate to understand the appeal, but when he did look up it was to see that lunch was only ten or so minutes from ending.

He gasped. "Shit! I nearly forgot; I've got to go give this USB back to Reece before 6th period. Can you put that back," he slid the textbook across the table, "thanks," he said not waiting for a response as he got up and fled the library, hoping to catch Reece in the locker room before the bell rang. 


	7. Chapter 7

**[Monday, March 21st]**

- **Ashton's POV-**

Ashton rounded the corner toward the library, wondering if he would have enough time to nip into the library and return the book he'd borrowed last week. It hadn't been all that thrilling, so it'd ended up in a pile in the corner of his room, which was not the best place to put something that you needed to return in six days. He knew exactly what the librarian would say to him as well, contrary to popular belief hanging out in the library all the time did not automatically make the staff like you. She thought Ashton was strange and often shooed him from the library on days when she could find a good enough excuse. So naturally, she wasn't going to be impressed if he got in there late. Most times he had to confront the crone he would bring Luke, not that the gangly kid was of much help, but it was nice to have someone tell him that yes, she was a bitch.

He let out a loud sigh, of course, Luke had to be off being sporty and showering in the middle of the day, he thought bitterly. Maybe she wouldn't be there-

Ashton hit something that let out a loud 'OOOFF' on contact, "Oh shit, I'm so sorry-" he stopped short as he looked up and made eye contact with his unfortunate victim, Calum. "I uh haven't seen you around in, in like weeks,"

"Oh hey, it's you, fuck sorry. I was actually just in the library looking for you," He chuckled, reaching a hand behind his neck to scratch nonchalantly. "Oh, wait! That sounds weird, it wasn't like that, just like you said I hadn't seen you around so I uh, went looking," he finished his confidence dropping off at the end and a lame chuckle leaving his lips.

Ashton chuckled more genuinely at the sweet boy, "I was just on the hockey field looking for you if that makes you feel less weird,"

"Yeah it does actually," a small smile found its way onto his face, and he seemed much less agitated as he shifted his hands to his front pockets, "why were you looking for me?"

Ashton went bright red; he could feel the heat in his cheeks and knew there was no way his skin had somehow remained unchanged. "Um, I kind of- Well- I kind of wanted to ask you if you wanted to- um wanted to hang out sometime?" he paused before realising his mistake, he was not going to put himself in the friend zone, he'd made that mistake before. "No! not hang out, go out. Yeah if you wanted to go out." he clarified quickly and a little too loudly.

This time Calum blushed and a grin split across his face, "Yeah, that's pretty much what I wanted to ask if I could work up the courage,"

"So that's a yes then?" Ashton asked, a cheek aching smile on his face.

The other boy mirrored him, "Yeah, yeah it is,"

"I'm so glad I haven't seen you in weeks, and I kept going to the hockey field looking for you, and obviously you weren't there, or we'd have had this conversation a lot earlier," Ashton told him chuckling.

Calum's brow furrowed, "I kept going to the library looking for you; those are like the only times I haven't been at hockey practice,"

"When I've gone looking for you that's been the only times I haven't been at the library, which means we've spent three weeks consistently missing each other. We are terrible at this," Ashton shook his head a fond smile on his face still.

Calum smiled, and then his eyes widened suddenly, "Oh yeah, sorry, were you headed somewhere important before I bumped into you?"

"I was actually just dreading having to go and return this book to the librarian; it's late so you can imagine how delighted she'll be with me," Ashton told him with an eye roll.

"I can come for a walk if you want?" he offered, "don't want to lose you now that I've finally found you," he continued chuckling.

"Yeah, that'd be nice,"

They turned back to face the way Calum had come from earlier, their shoulders brushing despite all the available room to walk. They made their way down the relatively empty hall, and as they came to the doors of the library Calum pushed Ashton toward the door, and when he turned to ask what he was doing, he pushed him again this time with his foot straight on his bum.

He turned and glared playfully, "what are you doing?"

"Scared of the librarian, I'm not going in there," he replied with a shrug, but a little smirk found its way onto his face as he finished.

"So, you're useless for the only reason I brought you with me?"

"Only reason? I thought you brought me because I was your new boo?"

Ashton blushed, "We haven't even been on that date yet you loser, come on, please come in," he begged.

"Is this you threatening to take the date back if I don't go in there with you?" the other boy nodded in response and Calum instinctively held out his hand for the other to take as a show of resignation.

Ashton looked down at the hand and blushed, the other realised what he'd done, and his own cheeks heat up, but before he could take the hand back it was in Ashton's, and they were moving through the library doors.

"No canoodling in the library", the librarian's voice boomed as soon as they stepped inside, and they sheepishly dropped each other's hands. Ashton quickly deposited the book in the dropbox, the librarian watched the entire time sending him a filthy look, and as soon as the book hit the cushions inside the box, she reefed the door open and pulled it out. Clearly trying to make it seem the book was desperately needed by some poor student elsewhere. Ashton broke eye contact and turned back to Calum, shuffling out of the library guiltily.

"Well that was dramatic," Calum said as soon as the automatic doors closed behind him.

Ashton slipped his hand back into Calum's, "that's why I needed the moral support, you're coming every time from now on,"

Calum chuckled, "of course," 

His lack of immediate refusal warmed something in Ashton's chest, and he couldn't help the little smile that found its way onto his face. 


	8. Chapter 8

**[Monday, April 11th]**

**-Ashton's POV-**

"The hockey field isn't exactly the place I was thinking of when you said something romantic," Ashton admitted as they came to a stop at the furthermost corner of the field.

Calum chuckled, "Well I wanted to take you to the park, but it's a holiday weekend, so everyone's out and about, _but_ the last place anyone wants to be on a holiday weekend is school. So, we've got the whole place to ourselves," he explained as he flicked out a blanket on the lush green sideline.

The other boy helped him flatten out the blanket as they began unpacking his backpack, crackers, cheese, electric candles, portable speaker, two cans of soft drink and two plastic champagne flutes. Ashton chuckled as they surfaced from the bag, "I was going to bring actual champagne, but I thought it might be pushing our luck given we're on school grounds,"

"Yes, school grounds are the only issue, not you know, you're underage," Ashton said with an eye roll before moving away from the backpack to sit and watch Calum set everything up. The electric candles were placed on the edges of the blanket, making a large, wonky circle. The cheese and crackers were laid out on a chopping board that had surfaced from god know where. The speaker was set up behind the candles, and Calum pressed play on his phone and low, slow music began to play, just loud enough to break up the silence but should someone want to, they could speak over it with ease.

Finally, he cracked one of the cans of creaming soda and split it between the two glasses before handing one to Ashton and then sipping quietly at the other. He looked down into his glass and had a small private smile just between him and the rim on the glass. They'd only been seeing each other three or so weeks, and Ashton was entirely smitten. This was only their second date, and he couldn't imagine the other boy out of his life even for a second. They'd also started keeping their little routine except now they made sure the other was at library/hockey field when they went. It was all just so lovely; it made Ashton smile like this often.

When he looked up, he could see Calum watching him with a shit-eating grin, "Don't make fun of me! What did I do that's so funny?" he exclaimed reaching out a hand to smack at the others leg.

Calum caught the hand and tugged Ashton forward with it, Ashton had nothing supporting him, and he fell awkwardly onto the offending boy's lap. His glass splashed his drink up over them both, and he let out a loud huff. Calum chuckled, wrapping his arm around the back of Ashton's waist and pulling him up further. He picked Ashton's glass up from his lap and flicked it out into the field, then moved his head down to kiss the soft drink covered boy. Ashton shifted his head, so Calum's lips met his chin instead. He pulled back, giving Ashton a frown, but he just shook his head in response.

"You don't get to make fun of me and then spill sticky stuff all over me _and_ get a kiss," Ashton declared trying to rise out of Calum's grip.

The others grip tightened, "Oh I can spill sticky stuff on you," Calum said with a low chuckle and Ashton frowned at him, "I wasn't making fun of you," he explained chuckling again. "I just knew you were thinking about us and knowing that I could put that big dumb smile on your face, well it put a big dumb smile on my face,"

Ashton shifted his head, so he was making eye contact with the boy again, "really?"

"Really," he smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners.

Ashton blushed and rolled his eyes, moving forward to press his lips against Calum's. The other wasn't having it though and kept ducking his head away whenever Ashton got close, "Calum Thomas Hood, I will never let you anywhere near these lips if you keep this up,"

Calum pulled his head back to look at Ashton a grin on his face, "Is that a promise?"

Ashton groaned, dropping his head into Calum's chest instead of making another attempt. He felt the other's arm come up from his waist and start tracing shapes in his back with his fingers. It was silent as they sat there, Calum's fingers running haphazardly on his back, "you know this might be a bit soon, and weird but I think I love you," Calum said, his tone even and his voice calm.

Ashton's head came up so quickly he knocked Calum in the chin, "I'm so sorry" he said quickly, his hand already on the other boy's chin as if the touch could somehow soothe it. "I was just surprised is all, I mean, we haven't even kissed yet," Ashton's voice rose at the end as if he were asking a question, 'We haven't kissed, and I've forgotten, have we?'.

"Well that's on you, you got stroppy,"

"Stroppy?" Ashton gasped.

Calum nodded slowly holding eye contact with the other boy as he moved his head in and tilted it, Ashton's eyes dropped closed, and he felt the gentle but firm press of lips against his own. Houston! We have lips! He felt Calum's arm stiffen behind him and realised Calum was laying him down on the picnic blanket. He felt knees pressing into the outside of his thighs. Their lips still hadn't separated, just moving softly against one another's, Ashton slowly worked up the courage to tentatively open his lips and let his tongue brush against Calum's. The other responded immediately opening his mouth and licking into Ashton's. They continued kissing slow and wet, and honestly, Ashton was getting hard. Calum ground down on Ashton, and they both let out breathy moans, and then Calum pulled away and moved sitting back on his legs atop Ashton's thighs.

"I do not think that that's how first kisses are supposed to go," Calum said, and Ashton watched the quick rise and fall of his chest, which assured him he wasn't the only one who'd gotten a little too into it.

"Coming from the person on top of me!" Ashton said, awkwardly sitting up with Calum still on his legs.

"Was good, though, right?" Calum asked a smirk coming onto his face.

Ashton rolled his eyes but eventually conceded with a small nod and Calum chuckled, bringing his hand up to hold his cheek gently. The butterflies collected in Ashton's stomach again as their eyes remained locked, small smiles on their faces before Calum brought their lips together again. 


	9. Epilogue

**[Thursday, July 14th]**

**-Ashton's POV-**

Ashton sat in his now usual spot with a book open across his lap and an apple in hand. He was reading and watching, watching and reading, and of course taking loud crunching bites of his apple whenever he felt compelled to. Funnily enough, he seemed to conveniently choose the moments when the gossiping girls behind him stopped talking to do it. The fact that it made the silence that much more obvious was, well a happy accident he supposed. 

He took another large bite and broke the relative silence of the stand, and then he made a show of looking down at his book; clearly, he couldn't hear and read, and so they started their conversation again. 

"Yeah, him right there, he'd Calum Hood's boyfriend. He always comes to practice and reads the whole time. I think Calum deserves someone who gives a shit," he was almost certain the voice belonged to Lisa Edson, she'd taken up quite the vendetta against him in the past few months. 

Calum had explained not long after it started that she'd had a bit of a thing for him, he might have even been jealous, but a funny thought had come into his mind, and he told Calum about the day Reece had hit on him. 

'You know if you'd dated her and I'd dated Reece we could have been in-laws!' he's explained faux excitedly. Calum had found it less funny, considering he and Reece were friends and on the same hockey team. And he'd really not enjoyed the follow-up comment either, 'what? Isn't in-laws close enough related for you, daddy?' he'd asked. Which had been met with several hits over the head with a pillow, and if he were honest, and things had been the other way around, he'd have done the same. 

Needless to say, the snarky comments weren't any less annoying despite knowing the motivation behind them. 

"Not to mention someone who's not such a slut. Like the week before they started dating Ashton was dating Luke, and while he was dating Luke he was flirting with Reece," 

"My brother would never be interested in a guy like that," 

"Well we were all here, and we saw it happen, Lisa," 

Ashton held back a sigh, and instead of burying his nose back in his book, started to fantasize about Lisa taking a hockey ball to the head during practice. It was surprisingly helpful and kept him entertained the rest of the way through practice until everyone was clearing off the field. He contemplated doing what he usually did and going straight down to see Calum before the boy showered but decided no, he had a point to prove. So, he sat pretending to read his book even though he was really watching as casually as possible for Calum to make his way up the steps.

It was a while before Calum came up and he assumed maybe he'd been waiting for him on the field, there wasn't much left of lunch when Ashton looked up at Calum. He could tell because the field was entirely clear, and yet the girls were still sitting behind him, waiting for what? A lover's quarrel, Ashton, supposed.

Calum slid in beside Ashton on the bench and pecked him on the lips, placing a large hand on his far thigh to 'support himself' as he leant across. Ashton knew by now that Calum had a bit of thing for his thighs and was always finding excuses to touch them. They were never excellent excuses, but if Ashton didn't like it, he'd have said something by now.

"How's your book?" Calum asked softly as he moved back, the hand, however, remained.

"Best birthday present ever," Ashton declared with a wide closed mouth smile.

He grinned, "thought you must have been up here wrapped up in it, everyone else is gone, are you ready to head in?"

"Oh yeah, of course, sorry," Ashton grabbed his water bottle from the floor and closed his book. Calum stood and waited as he fumbled, trying to pull his bag up on to his shoulder a fond smile on his face. When Ashton looked up, there was a blush coating his cheeks, and the other just chuckled holding out his hand, he took it gratefully and was led down the stairs.

When they were about halfway down the grandstand Calum spoke, the softness from before gone, "they were bitches again weren't they? You don't have to come; I wouldn't want to listen to that shit,"

"It's nothing I just read my book and watched this really hot Maori guy run around," Ashton said, wiggling his eyebrows. Calum's composure broke, and he smiled rolling his eyes, "all they said was that I wasn't paying attention and you deserved a boyfriend who actually gave a shit," Ashton chuckled, "Oh and they think you stole me from Luke," he added, laughing harder. 

They rounded the corner of the grandstand and Calum stopped, "I did, you're mine. And you really should be more attentive, not a very good boyfriend at all," Calum told him solemnly, absentmindedly moving their joined hands back and forth.

"Oh I know, I just don't look after you like I should," Ashton said a smirk on his lips, he saw a pleased smile trying to fight through Calum's cool demeanour, so he tugged his hand and moved past him leading him through the locker room door.

He took a tentative look around before dropping his bag on the ground, and quickly removing his clothes. He looked up and saw Calum still fully clothed; he raised his eyebrows before walking over to one of the many shower stalls and turning the tap on leaving the door wide open. He closed his eyes and stepped straight under the stream of water and thank god Calum's teammates had just been in here because if the water had been cold, it might have ruined the fantasy Ashton was playing out for himself.

He couldn't put his finger on what exactly it was, maybe it was the outcast in him that thought getting railed by an athlete in the locker room was the ultimate fantasy. Or maybe he just really liked the idea of getting caught, he wasn't sure, but his cock was already aching at the idea.

He leant his head back, letting the water stream run down his front and his hand feigned washing his chest before it snaked down and started to tug at his half-hard cock. He let out a small whine for Calum's benefit. He heard a groan from where Calum had been standing and then shuffling, finally, he was getting undressed. Ashton let his eyes flick open; he turned to face the other front on still rubbing his cock casually.

When Calum was fully naked standing in front of him, he could see the boy's cock was fully hard, and Ashton knew he was turning into a slut because his mouth watered a little. Calum made his way over to the stall moving into the waters spray, so he and Ashton were facing each other almost equally sharing the water. Ashton reached across and stroked his cock, making sure it was getting hit by the shower.

"Not going to suck your sweaty cock," Ashton told him as he got down onto his knees, the water hitting his hair and face as he continued working Calum's thick member. Little breaths came from above him as he worked it in his hand before finally leaning in and mouthing at the head sloppily. He pulled back, "Still tastes sweaty," he could tell Calum was going to say something, so he put it a stop to it by taking the boys cock fully into his mouth and starting to bob. He was shallow at first before speeding up and gradually taking more and more. Whines and groans continued above him, and without much thought, Calum started reflexively thrusting gently into Ashton's mouth. He worked his own dick as he sucked, not that he thought he needed much he wasn't going to last long he could tell. His eyes starting to water a little and his jaw beginning to hurt he finally pulled off and Calum gasped at his sensitive cock being exposed so suddenly to the water spray.

"Really need to cum," he finally said, Ashton looked up for the first time in a while and saw Calum had one hand on the wall bracing himself and his eyes were only just fluttering open.

"Really want you to fuck me," Ashton told him dashing out of the stall quickly and searching his book bag for the condom and sachet of lube he knew he'd stowed.

"You really brought that to school?"

Ashton nodded handing them to Calum as he got back under the warm water spray, "been thinking about this fantasy a lot lately," he told him earnestly, letting himself get warm under the spray before turning to bend over, hands against the stall wall.

When Calum didn't immediately do anything, he wiggled his bum and then he felt a hand rest on his back. "Okay finger is going in," he told him, and then he felt the familiar press of a long, slick finger into him. Calum began fingering him quickly, adding finger after finger and Ashton had his face pressed against the wall letting out little gasps and moans as his boyfriend worked him open.

Ashton spoke, voice muffled by the wall, "I need my back blown out now,"

Calum moaned, and then Ashton felt the fingers leave him, and a few moments later he felt the familiar touch of Calum lining himself up, a hand on his hip and then his thick cock press into him. He moaned loudly without thought as Calum pressed further into him until he was flush with Ashton's ass. His other hand came down to hold Ashton's other hip, and he knew he was going to get what he asked for. Calum began thrusting in and out, going as deep as he could before snapping his hips back thrusting in again. Over and over his thrust in and out, Ashton's obscene noises encouraging him. 

He suddenly reached around, wrapping an arm around Ashton's middle and pulling him up, the other hand coming up to hold his throat. He wasn't quite pressed against Calum's chest, and he whined trying to push his back against him, but Calum held him still, before slowly starting again thrusting up into him. Ashton was still whining, loving the firm hand across his throat. He didn't like to be choked, they'd worked that out early, but he did like to be held by the neck/throat, it felt intimate and familiar to him. And right now being unable to physically bring himself closer to Calum it felt like the best compromise. 

The sensation and the grunts behind him were pushing him closer and closer to the edge, and seemingly without warning his body shuddered slightly, and he came all over the wall of the shower. His hole tightened around Calum as he came and he used what strength he had left in his rubbery legs to press back against Calum's cock. The other became a moaning mess under the sensations of Ashton, tightening and untightening around him. He continued thrusting up into him but, wasn't able to last much longer, and soon came with an 'ah fuck', before stepping back and letting his dick slide free. 

He took a few deep breaths and let his head loll back, a grin spreading across his face until slowly the realisation hit him, "We were so loud,"

Ashton turned back around his posture slightly stiff, but a grin was on his face, "that was fucking amazing," he stepped forward, pressing his lips against the others.

Calum pulled back grinning, "yeah it was," he paused before adding "even if someone might have heard," then pressing another kiss to his boyfriend's lips, "oh fuck! We are so late for class," He stepped back under the shower rinsing himself as quickly as possible and finally remembering to take the used condom off, holding it up to Ashton as if to ask 'What do I do with this?'.

Ashton chuckled taking the condom and putting it in one of the bins, "chill out, can't you just appreciate that you have the best boyfriend ever, who by the way just did something for you no girl in this school would even think about,"

"Oh yes, that was entirely for my benefit," Calum said with an eye-roll before scrubbing at his hair.

Ashton hummed, "I'm such a generous boyfriend," before climbing back under the spray and giving Calum a chaste kiss, "love you,"

Calum rolled his eyes, "love you, too." 


End file.
